It was one time when I didn’t feel bad when I was told that there were no more tickets available for the film I wanted to watch.
I was so happy seeing the Cultural Center of the Philippines filled with people who love films. It showed that Filipinos yearn for good films. The scene disproved the condescending arguments of producers of silly films that they were just giving the Filipino audience what they want.
Cinemalaya showed that we have an abundant supply of cinema talents.
The wealth of a nation is its people.
It goes without saying that a healthy population is a prerequisite for a country to progress.Healthy citizens live longer and are more productive.
Today is exactly two weeks after the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision declared as unconstitutional Aquino and his Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad pet project.
Malacañang sources said Aquino was stunned by the voting (13-0. Not even his appointees especially Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno sided with him!) he threw tantrums. He wants to wage war against the Supreme Court justices.
Wonder no more why House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. wants an investigation on the Judiciary Development Fund being administered by the Supreme Court.
Last Friday Aquino gave the public a preview of what he is going to say today. During the cabinet meeting on the 2015 budget, Aquino announced that he was rejecting the resignation of Abad. “I have decided not to accept his resignation. To accept his resignation is to assign to him a wrong and I cannot accept the notion that doing right by our people is wrong.”
Yesterday Abad, who was silent the past two weeks issued a statement taking responsibility for the illegal DAP which was the reason, he said, he tendered his resignation. But there was no apology or remorse for making a mockery of the budget process with the juggling of P374 billion.
The picture we are referring to is that of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas hoisting a sack of NFA rice residue during an inspection of a rice warehouse in Muntinlupa.
Some say that picture, which has gone viral, is photoshopped. We had the photo analyzed by professional photographers and they said it’s genuine, not digitally tampered with.
They explained that the reason Roxas hoisting of the sack looked effortless was because the content as indicated in the sack was not regular rice but “broken rice residue” or darak used for animal feed.
Lawyer Edward Serapio, former presidential counsel during the Estrada administration, once told me when he was under detention in Camp Crame in connection with Estrada’s plunder case way back in 2001, that he was so grateful for the wife of then Philippine National Police head Leandro Mendoza serving him coffee when he surrendered early in the morning at the White House, the PNP chief’s residence.
Yesterday, Sen. Juan Ponce- Enrile thanked the PNP for treating him kindly, allowing him to stay at the PNP General Hospital in Camp Crame upon his surrender last Friday and allowing him to have his check up at the Asian Eye Institute in Makati the next day.
At this time when the popular sentiment is to throw stones at all those accused in the plunder of people’s money (Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Revilla et al), any act kindness to those who are down is the true essence of humanity.
It is not about the guilt of the accused. It is humaneness.
While we should be vigilant that justice is obtained in the pork barrel scam, we should also be conscious of the danger that in pursuing justice, we become hardened and lose our sense of humanity. That would be a tragedy.
Main Decision
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287.pdfSeparate Opinions:
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287_carpio.pdf
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287_brion.pdf
Concurring and Dissenting opinion
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287_delcastillo.pdf
Separate Concurring Opinion
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287
_bernabe.pdf
Concurring Opinion
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pdf/web/viewer.html?file=/jurisprudence/2014/july2014/209287_leonen.pdf
The progressive groups –Anakbayan and Kilusang Mayo Uno- have hinted on impeachment in their statements hailing the High Court’s decision on DAP.
Anakbayan’s Vencer Crisostomo said, “Aquino and his pork gang should resign now in shame. Calls for him to be removed from office via impeachment or via a people’s uprising is growing and is increasingly justified. Aquino and his pork gang should be ousted.”
KMU’s Elmer Labog said, “The SC ruling could only further fuel calls for the Pork Barrel King’s resignation, if not ouster from office.”
“There’s a sucker born every minute” exhibition promoter David Hannum once said.
I’m included in that perpetually increasing list of suckers.
Past midnight last Wednesday,June 25, 1:27 a.m. I got this text message from +639752279723:
GlobeAlert: You’re the one lucky selected postpaid plan that has given 40% discount on your billing. To avail your 40%discount just forward your 3-digits pin code to 29752279723. You will receive the 3 digits pin code on next message.
President Aquino and his minions should not wave the legal banner about the Chief Executive’s power not to uphold the recommendation of the National Commission on Culture and Arts and the Cultural Center in conferring the National Artist awards to Filipino individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of Philippine arts.
The issue is: did he use that power judiciously in deleting the name of movie actress Nora Aunor from the list submitted by the NCCA and CCP for the National Artist awards?
Press Secretary Herminio Coloma cited the 2013 ruling of the Supreme Court on a 2009 National Artist controversy (former NCCA Chair Cecile G. Alvarez inserted her name to the list submitted jointly by NCCA and CCP to Malacañang which Gloria Arroyo upheld) which, he said, states that the President does not have to justify his decision.
Coloma should be reminded that Aquino is not a King who reigns without accountability to the people.
The press secretary should also be reminded that Aquino won on the platform of transparency. He has time and again told the people, “Kayo ang Boss ko.” He now feels superior over his “Boss” that he does not have to explain his action?
The Philippines is losing the battle that he led the country to wage against China.
Yesterday Del Rosario said that the Philippines will ask the United Nations Arbitral Court to hasten the resolution of the 2013 suit it filed questioning the legality of China’s nine-dash line map in the light of the latter’s expansion activities on islands they are occupying in the disputed areas of the Spratlys in the South China Sea.
Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza had said that they expect the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea to rule on both jurisdiction and merit of the Philippine claim “between 2015 to 2016.” China has refused to participate in the Philippine case.
When God blessed the earth, he must have been standing near and facing Palawan because the province is so rich in natural resources and possesses spectacular sceneries – on the ground, underground, on the water, underwater.
In the northern part of Palawan is El Nido, a municipality of almost 40,000 in an area covering 92,326 hectares. The town is named after Swiflets (local name is Balinsasayaw) nests made from the bird’s saliva found in the crevices of the limestone’s cliffs in the area.
The mountain islands of El Nido are simply breathtaking. They are towers of stone so high they almost kiss the clouds.They come in all shapes and forms, depending on your imagination.